Chapter 23: Into the Lion's Den

Alucard watched through the Distance Mirror as Sypha focused on leapfrogging the castle through the countryside. He internally winced at the sheer destruction it would be causing, but he knew it was the best she could do. She got it to their location very good timing, because he saw the explosion of the engine room in the Mirror.

Sypha staggered back, and Alucard moved over to catch the Mirror before it fell. She let out a relieved laugh. 'I did it!'

Beside her, Yvette folded her arms and cocked her head. 'Yes, you did.'

Alucard turned. 'Where did you land the castle, Sypha?' he asked pointedly.

'Right on top of us!' She proclaimed in delight, clapping like an excited child. Then she froze and her eyes widened in realisation. 'Oh. Hm. Yes. I…landed it on the surface, right above this underground space,' there was dirt trickling down, 'that's probably only held up by wood and dirt.'

They were all silent for a moment.

'Let's go,' Sypha said.

'Trevor, we're leaving!' Yvette called.

'Castle here?' he asked, leaning over the edge of the banister, next to the broken bit.

'Directly above us.'

'Oh for God's sake!' He turned and headed up.

'He's so cranky!' Yvette proclaimed like it was cute as she and Sypha took off after him.

Alucard took a few more minutes to follow.

Soon all four of them stood directly below the door into the Hold. They all looked up. There was a red tinge colouring the world outside that they could all see. And that red tinge had leaked in and fallen over all of them. Yvette, Trevor, and Alucard glowered up at it. Sypha looked up at it in confusion.

'What is that?' she asked.

'A blood moon,' Yvette said. 'Only the most powerful vampires can induce them.'

'Damn. This is gonna be hard.' Trevor walked over and picked up his sword. 'The staircase is a wreck. We're not getting up there without ropes.'

'Or option number two,' Yvette said, looking up.

'Which is?' Trevor asked.

'Well,' Yvette looked at a damp piece of wooden debris, 'this isn't blood. It's water.' She returned to the group.

Sypha moved and the water under their feet transformed into ice. She folded her middle fingers into her palm and pressed her thumbs, forefingers, and pinky fingers together. 'Here we go.' The ice column began to rise up. They stood in silence as Sypha lifted them up towards the surface. Both Trevor and Yvette looked up as they passed the picture of Leon Belmont, that'd been knocked off it's hook.

Trevor's hand wrapped around the Morning Star.

As soon as the ice column reached the surface, the four of them walked over and jumped off of it. Then Sypha sent the entire ice column flying off into the woods. The other three looked over at her curiously. She smiled shyly and said, 'Well, I didn't want to leave it in there to melt and ruin all your beautiful books.'

Yvette chuckled. 'Thank you.'

Alucard looked down at the mud and lifted his foot. 'It seems damp enough out here as it is.'

Sypha looked over and gasped. She point. 'But look!'

And there stood Dracula's castle.

'You did it, Sypha,' Trevor said.

'Yes,' she said, 'but...seeing it is something else entirely.' She then grinned at him. 'I'm pretty good, right?'

Trevor smiled at her. 'You're the best.' He then refocused on the task at hand. 'Alucard, are you ready for this?'

'No.' He wrapped a hand around the hilt of his sword. 'But let's put an end to this anyway.'

And the four of them moved off. All of them headed for the castle; to face Dracula and end his massacres.

The vampires continued fighting in the main hall as soon as the holy water was gone. Swords and lances clashed and claws tore into other vampires. Dracula and his remaining forgemaster had already withdrawn from the room for one reason or another. But, suddenly, every vampire in the room froze. Several of them began to shake in fear and all eyes widened as they registered what had just happened.

All eyes slowly turned to the castle's entrance.

Four people stood in the room, glaring over all of them.

The most recognisable of them was Dracula's son, Alucard. No one really paid all that much attention to the redheaded woman in Speaker robes with them. She was unknown to them and, therefore, not yet considered a threat. Far more attention was alotted to the dhamphir and the other two humans.

The blonde woman with the sweet-smelling blood had a wicked-looking blade in her hand. The Belmont crest hung around her neck, a golden pendant. Several of the older vampires recognised her but could not believe it. If she was still alive, that would make her at least three centuries old. And she was still human.

And that was not the only place the Belmont crest could be seen.

The brunet man had the Belmont crest emblazoned on his breast. It would later be seen that he also had it across his back. The Belmont family's deadliest weapon – the Morning Star – hung from his hip as well. The scar over his left eye demonstated that, despite the silence of the family for the last decade or so, he had been fighting all that time.

Several vampires either gasped or ground their teeth.

The male Belmont wasted no time in yanking the Morning Star from his belt. 'Yvette and I terrify them, Sypha disorients them, Alucard goes over the top, and we support him.'

'Yes,' the Speaker said, moving her hands so the more astute vampires realised that she was likely a sorceress.

'Hm.' The female Belmont lifted her blade in preparation.

Alucard lifted his blade, sheath and all. He let it hover there a moment before he pulled the sheath from the sword and discarded it. The sword remained floating a moment. He then telekinetically flipped it so that it was over his shoulder – something which was quite alarming to those who'd never seen his power before. 'Begin.'

The quartet attacked and the vampires – both sides of the conflict – moved to meet them. Almost instantly, the female Belmont's blade sliced the heads off of the nearest vampires to her. Then the Morning Star shot out. It hit one vampire and he exploded in an inferno that took several of the others with him.

The female Belmont grinned and hopped out of the way to let her male relative spin the chain and take out as many vampires as possible. If one was not fast enough, one simply died. And the female Belmont seemed to enjoy watching it, while the vampires found themselves having to dodge a firey and relentless death.

They were, in fact, so focused on dodging the Morning Star that the wall of fire took them completely by surprise.

Their only warning was a grunt from the Speaker.

And most of them did not even register it.

But they did register Alucard leaping through the flames in wolf form. He immediately charged through them and tore the throat out of one vampire before throwing him into a wall. Then he turned to face the others, snarling. One of the vampires stepped up to face him and held his lance out.

He struck and Alucard leapt out of the way. The vampire then spun his lance into his other hand but Alucard telekinetically called his sword. It flew over and speared right through the vampire's arm, cutting it off. Alucard caught his sword between his teeth and tossed it through the neck of the vampire, killing him within a single second. Alucard then landed and returned to humanoid form.

He recalled his sword to him.

Then he attacked again.